D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said Wednesday that the District has not secured any private funding for his planned One City Summit, even as the mayor said attendance at the event could be double what organizers originally anticipated. “Hopefully, we will be successful in getting offsetting private contributions, but if not, I’m prepared to go ahead with this,” Gray said at a news conference. “This is something we will look to our budget for to be able to facilitate.”
Previously, Gray’s office said the One City Summit, initially projected to cost about $600,000, would be paid for through a combination of private and public funding, some of which would come from money D.C. saved after securing a lower bond interest rate.
| To register |
| » To attend the One City Summit on Feb. 11, go to onecitysummit.dc.gov or call 202-709-5132. Registration is free. |
That cost estimate, though, was based on plans for 1,000 participants. During an informal session with members of the D.C. Council on Wednesday morning, Gray said the District had already processed 1,000 registrations for the Feb. 11 meeting at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Later, Gray floated the potential of 2,000 participants.
“I don’t have any reservations about saying I’d like to get 1,000 or 2,000 people to come together to talk about the future of this city,” he said. “This was something I wanted to do because it’s participatory democracy, and I believe this is something the city ought to invest in.”
Doxie McCoy, a spokeswoman for Gray, declined to say how much the additional participants could cost the city.
“One thousand participants is a good estimate for attendance,” McCoy wrote in an email to The Washington Examiner after Gray said the District had already signed up 1,000 people to attend and was willing to accommodate more. “At any rate, we will be prepared and act accordingly if it goes over that.”
Some of the summit’s costs are likely fixed — including room rental and audiovisual equipment — but others, like a complimentary lunch, will fluctuate based on the number of participants.
A spokeswoman for the Washington Convention Center did not respond to an Examiner request about how a boost in attendance would increase the costs for the facility’s services, which she previously estimated at about $188,000.
Gray, who ran for mayor on a “One City” agenda, has touted the gathering as “a frank and open conversation” that will include small-group discussions and votes, using handheld devices, to help determine District priorities for 2012.
